To address your concerns, no there is not a bed next to the stove so no worries there, the stove is in the living room under constant supervision. It is a rental and I'm not concerned about scratching the floor when the floor in the bathroom is seconds from falling through, however the two broken pieces of block were temporary and have a full size paver under it. As far as the vent pipe is concerned, I'm not worried by it cause after two hours I can still put my hand on it where as the stove itself I can not. As far as wall distance, the wall does not get any heat either and the picture may be misleading, for it is 24" from the wall, the vent piping does not go straight down and 90° in to the stove it's more of a 45°. And the wood box is not right under the string either.
I did many test burns in the shop before I even brought it home to the possibility of endangering my family with an untested piece of equipment. It was hard enough telling my wife and father- in-law I was going to build a rocket stove/heater.
As for the design and materials I used, I used what I had on hand and could not build a conventional size/style rocket mass heater. Knowing metal like I do, and being a rather decent (certified) welderI am confident that my little piece of crap will get me through the winter very well (and has through "Hercules")
Came to this site because I have heard Paul on TSP and really like his interviews with Jack, and heard all he was doing with rocket mass heaters and was extremely intrigued and was hoping to find more help/info on ratios of feed tubes, burn tubes, risers and such or that my little piece of crap might help someone else in my position build something a little better on a small scale... But I guess unless it is made out of a 55 gal drum and fire brick and cob, one is going to get attacked by fire marshal bill and be told how useless their time and effort was... May be I should have just listened to my father-in-law and gotten an old fashion wood burning stove.
No worries, I may lurk about in the different forms and see what ideas there are on other projects but I damn sure won't post anymore builds, projects, ideas or help
